Latitude is the title of the International Promotion Project for Brazilian
Art Business which is a partnership between Apex-Brasil (Brazilian
Trade and Investment Promotion Agency) and the Brazilian Association
of Contemporary Art (ABACT).
It was started in 2007 with the core goal of creating business
opportunities for the art sector mainly through cultural promotion
activities. During this period, the number of members increased.
Currently, 52 primary market art galleries participate in Latitude,
representing more than 1000 artists.
Through a rich programme of activities that ranges from supporting
Brazilian galleries in international fairs to promoting Art Immersion
trips for international guests in Brazil, Latitude aims to improve
professionalism within the art market and provide new opportunities
for Brazilian galleries to trade internationally.

With one of the most prosperous and promising art scenes in the
world, Brazil is quickly expanding its reputation as a global art centre.
Maintaining its place as the world’s sixth largest economy, it is a country
that has steered clear of much of the economic turmoil of recent years
and is host to original and vibrant production in contemporary art which
is grounded in a solid historical tradition.
Some of the most successful Brazilian contemporary artists, like Vik
Muniz, Ernesto Neto, Adriana Varejão and Beatriz Milhazes have
succeeded in achieving international acknowledgement and success
with their work featured in the main museums, galleries, collections and
art institutions around the world.

Brazilian art scene:
domestic and
international expansion

In 2008, Tate Modern held a solo exhibition of works by Cildo Meirelles
and is now preparing a large retrospective on Mira Schendel (19191988) to open in September 2013. With more than 500 Brazilian
artworks in its permanent collection, MoMA showed a big installation by
Carlito Carvalhosa in 2012 and will host a major retrospective on Lygia
Clark (1920-1988) next year.
Some of the country’s important institutions, like the Museum of Modern
Art in São Paulo, were founded in the 1940s. São Paulo Biennial
began in 1951, and is second only to Venice as the oldest functioning
international biennial. These events helped create a rich interchange
between different art forms and traditions, helping to consolidate the
unique aesthetics of Brazil.
Beyond the biennial, the country currently has some prestigious public
institutions such and Pinacoteca do Estado and Museu de Arte do Rio
(MAR), as well as some non-profit private foundations like Casa Daros
and the 3000-acre Inhotim, an assemblage of 20 galleries and pavillions
surrounded by tropical botanical gardens.
São Paulo stands as Brazil’s financial and cultural center, positioning
itself as an optimal a new hot spot for the global art market. Rio de
Janeiro also holds important museums, galleries and collections.
Together, the two cities account for over 80% of the art trade in Brazil.
SP-Arte and Art Rio, created respectively in 2005 and 2011, have
quickly become relevant international fairs, seeing a steady increase in
the percentage of foreign galleries over the years.
With a growing number of collectors, sellers and buyers, Brazil is now in
an optimal position to share its creative energy, to provoke debate and
to create new opportunities for exchange.

Art crosses borders. In an increasingly global world, where
economic and cultural exchange plays a necessary role,
the Brazilian contemporary art sector is currently undergoing
a vibrant and stimulating process of internationalization.
Exports for Brazilian contemporary art have increased by 403%
since 2007 with higher numbers of Brazilian galleries integrating
international art fairs like Art Basel and Frieze each year.

Brazil and Hong Kong:
ongoing discoveries

As the only participating galleries from Latin America, Casa
TriĂ˘ngulo, Mendes Wood DM and Galeria Nara Roesler are proud to
bring Brazilian contemporary art closer to Asia. Each with a different
approach they are bringing together a large range of artists and
techniques. Each of the three galleries is presenting in Hong Kong
an intriguing view of current production in Brazil.
The exchange between Brazil, Hong Kong and China is an area ripe
for exploration. Brazil has recently been displaying some important
exhibitions of chinese artists, and one of the countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main art
institutions Centro Cultural Banco do Brasil is currently presenting
Cai Guo-Qiangâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s works. Journalists from China and Southern Asia
were invited and came to visit SP-Arte last April. An exhibition
scheduled for next year will feature works of art created through an
exchange residency whereby Brazilian artists produced new work in
China and Chinese artists did the same in Brazil.
By seeking out new partnerships we hope to spread our enthusiasm
for art from Brazil, and reduce distances between different countries
and traditions around the world. We believe it is a rewarding
challenge to be faced with.

Casa
Triângulo

Mendes
Wood DM

booth 1B09 / Art GALLERIES

booth Hall1 1C46 / Discoveries

Casa Triângulo, founded in 1988, in São Paulo, stands out with
accurate bet in emerging artists; in encouraging its artists to perform
experimental exhibitions of institutional scale in the gallery space, in
constantly supporting the artist’s participation in important exhibitions,
and investing in relevant art fairs which gives them visibility in the
international contemporary art scene.

Mendes Wood was founded in 2010 by partners Pedro Mendes,
Matthew Wood and Felipe Dmab, with the intention to exhibit
international and Brazilian artists in a context conducive to critical
dialogue and cross-pollination. Central to the gallery’s program is
a concern for regional difference and individuation while fostering
cosmopolitanism and collaboration.

Promoting ten exhibitions a year, for almost 25 years, and working on
the inclusion of works by its artists in relevant institutional and private
collections in Brazil and abroad, Casa Triângulo was one of the first
Brazilian galleries to invest in major international art fairs.

Inspired by a belief that artistic practices broaden the scope of
human agency and have the power to both touch and change
the world, Mendes Wood endorses the new convergence of art,
music, architecture and video for the collective good, celebrating
conceptualism, political resistance and intellectual rigor.

The gallery space is specially designed for housing the most varied
artists languages and holds two exhibition rooms.

For over 35 years, Nara Roesler has continuously promoted
contemporary art to a body of collectors, curators, and scholars.
In 1989, Galeria Nara Roesler was founded in São Paulo as an arena
to expand the boundaries of art practice, locally and abroad.
Representing some of the most interesting contemporary artists,
the gallery directs much of its interest towards apposing art practices
from the late 60s onwards with their contemporary and convergent
ramifications, representing historical names alongside a selected group
of artists on the rise. In 2012, the gallery had its exhibition space
doubled, totaling an area of ​1600m² and revitalized the curatorial
project Roesler Hotel, started in 2006.
Artists in Art Basel Hong Kong: Abraham Palatnik, Alberto Baraya,
Antonio Dias, Artur Lescher, Cristina Canale, Eduardo Coimbra, Isaac
Julien, José Patrício, Julio Le Parc, Marcelo Silveira, Marco Maggi,
Marcos Chaves, Oscar Oiwa, Vik Muniz.
Photo: Vik Muniz Pictures of Magazine 2: Vase of Flowers, after
Claude Monet, 2013